hey guys, im doing motorsport engineering this september and wanna get a head start on finding my industrial placement. i am trying to find a company closely related to F1 and i am in the process of contacting F1 teams to see if they offer any placement. does anyone have any suggestions if they know any companies that offer industrial placement during my studies. ideally i want to get into F1 after my course or in the near future. cheers

scott

Most motorsport placements especially F1 you need to apply years in advance, if you apply 6 months before your placement like most companies then dont even expect a reply. You will be very lucky to get one! Prodrive for example wanted you to do 6 months voluntary work with no pay.

My best mate has just started work for Bridgestone Motorsport and is a tyre engineer for the renault F1 team. You definatley need to be the right kind of person, he spends about 40 nights a year in the UK the rest of the time is at test tracks or race weekends living out of travel lodges and a small suitcase. Getting to the circuit at 7am and leaving at 9pm. I personally couldn't do it!

I would be buying autosport magazine and start looking in there for jobs, and make a list of motorsport companies and their suppliers and start sending out cover letters asap!

cheers, i've already started looking/applying but will speed up the pace. thanks for info

My personal view of the motorsport industry is its a very tough sector to be in. Very long hours, usually very poor pay (as team budgets are usually stretched) and an uncertain future. Any motorpsort company/team can decide to pack in at the end of the year leaving you without a job.

I got into my job by luck, knew someone who was allready in the team and recommended me.

As Mr Pinner says, you need to start reading Autosprout! (if you don't already)

Also, does your FE place have its own team, or any tie-ins?

You have PM

What about trying lower down the order, BTCC for example. Take Triple Eight or Seat Sport sure there might be future openings in the V8 Supercars or the WTCC.

I'd imagine it would be tough to get into.

Good point GAFF. Any F1 (or even GP2) adverts I've seen have all said "previous experience (in national formulae, GTs or int'l tintops) required".

Your Uni should have a good placements team who will have plenty of contacts and should be able to give you good advice. Try them, but freelance looking for a placement will require a lot of determined legwork with a very good introductory letter.

Good luck with it all.

Do Formula Student and see if there are any ex members who are in F1. One of our team members is on a year out with Mercedes HPE. I did some work experience for them a while back, but I don't fancy going straight in. I've got a job at Triumph starting on Monday and plan to stay for a good few years. If a good position in motorsport ever comes up, I might take it, but you get better pay, get to do more stuff and get to have a life in industry.